Clare,

Last night, the folks at the INDA meeting were talking about quality problems with Visual Studio 2005 RTM (the IDE randomly crashing for no apparent reason, etc.). The .NET Framework 2.0 seems *very* robust but there are problems with the IDE. Everyone (including myself) agrees that there is an excellent range of new features in VS2005 - the issue is solely to do with the quality of the IDE bits in the RTM. Some folks from last night seem a bit shy to ask, so I will.

* Is Microsoft Ireland satisfied with the quality of the IDE bits in VS2005 RTM?

* If one buys a packet of biscuits from the local shop and it is defective, it is normal to be able to return it and get one's money back. If a large corporate buys a dozen VS2005/MSDN licences now, and over the next few weeks finds the quality unsatisfactory, can it simply return the goods and get its money back from Microsoft, no questions asked?

* Hopefully it won't come to that, and what everyone wants is a quality IDE - so is it correct to assume that Microsoft/Redmond has a top-tier team of developers working on fixing the IDE and will have a robust build ready within a few weeks?

* What such a fixed build is called is irrelevant (patch? SP?), but will it be publicly available (at least in 'beta'), before Christmas 2005?

Microsoft Ireland will be getting lots of sales of VS2005/MSDN licences over the next few weeks and these simple yes/no questions, particularly the last one, are important to potential customers.

Regards,

Eamon